Good Company

SXSW FILM

• Good Company

  Welcome to Austin and SXSW Film 09

  BY KIMBERLEY JONES

• Film News

  Welcome to the great state of South by Southwest

  BY JOE O'CONNELL

• Every Step They Take

  Kathryn Bigelow dramatizes the dangerous business of bomb detonation in The Hurt Locker

  BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

• The 11th Hour

  Tim McCanlies eyes the finish line

  BY JOSH ROSENBLATT

• The Bee's Knees

  Andrew Bujalski's uncommon process

  BY KIMBERLEY JONES

• Magnificent Obsession

  Charting the unlikely ascension of Troll 2 from crappiest movie ever made to cult darling

  BY MARC SAVLOV

• The Watchmen

  Three documentaries shine a light on playing to the audience

  BY KIMBERLEY JONES

• Boys Who Like Boys

  Two takes on the bromance in Humpday and I Love You, Man

• Found Film

  The rehatching of Tobe Hooper's 1969 debut, Eggshells

  BY LOUIS BLACK

• An Expanding Definition of Family

  Karen Skloss' personal documentary explores mothers and daughters and the choices they make

  BY SARAH JEAN BILLEITER

• Animated Ladies

  Signe Baumane and Sarah Jane Lapp illustrate their points

  BY ANNE S. LEWIS

• Rock and a Hard Place

  Exploring the elusiveness of fame and the ethics of the mash-up in 24 Beats per Second

  BY JOSH ROSENBLATT

• It Came From Down Under

  Aussie films swarm SXSW 09

  BY DARCIE STEVENS

• Shot on Location

  For All Mankind filmmaker Al Reinert goes walking on the moon one more time

  BY ROBERT FAIRES

• In a World Where ...

  Plumbing the depths of Joe Dante's Trailers From Hell

  BY MARC SAVLOV

• The Cutting Edge

  Trailer maker Mark Woollen talks shop

  BY SPENCER PARSONS

Not too long ago, Spout.com's Karina Longworth – an indispensable voice on independent film – mused that "although Austin has become a place where independent filmmakers from all over the country — including LA and New York — come to show work, ironically, Austin's past and present identity as a film town often gets lost in that process and excluded from the conversation." Well, then: Let's talk, shall we?

This year, we put the home team on the cover, addressing in part the idea of this "past and present identity" with faces from Austin's film community, from the "old guard" of Linklater, Rodriguez, Judge, and McCanlies – all of whom will be involved in some capacity at this year's Festival and continue to mentor and support the community they helped create – to the new guys. "New" is perhaps disingenuous: Three of the filmmakers profiled have three or more features under their belts, and you can bet all of them have been laboring at this thing for years, even if it was just storyboarding the movies in their minds during algebra class.

I suppose we could be accused of being sentimental; like so many other regional filmmaking hubs, ours has taken a hit, and we really do want to celebrate the Austin film community. But the thing is, we've seen the films of the five "new kids" on our cover, and they're all good. They're great, actually. And that's just the tip of the iceberg – there are loads more homegrown films at the Fest, such as the competition films Artois the Goat and The Overbrook Brothers, and films from, well, let's call 'em the peripatetic Austinites, such as St. Nick's David Lowery – filmmakers who work and live here off and on but keep coming back because they know Austin treats film, and filmmakers, right.

The town's identity is ever in flux: Sometimes the story is a big-budget to-do; sometimes it's the micro-indie seemingly every name in Austin had a hand in. This much we know: that Austin is a town where you can borrow the camera off your neighbor's back; turn to a university full of sharp, talented folks who will crew for the price of a plate of migas; get a deal on your sound mix at a local studio; have a home for your work-in-progress at the Austin Film Society; and – oh yeah – find a champion in the local fish wrap.

In short: Welcome to Austin. It's totally worth the shitty summers.